£82,000 awarded to organisations in Northants to help reduce crime and increase public safety

The Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives (OFBCI) has awarded 15 faith organisations grants to deliver enterprising community safety solutions following its first Championing Change Business Academy

Callum Jones

More than £82,000 has been awarded to organisations in Northamptonshire that help reduce youth crime and increase public safety.

The money has been handed out by the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, set up by Northamptonshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Adam Simmonds.

A total of 20 organisations attended a recent Championing Change Business Academy where they received expert guidance from the University of Northampton’s Business School across six days on how to build competency, capacity and self-sufficiency in order to effectively deliver against objectives of increasing community safety and decreasing crime.

Following the presentation of business plans to a multi-agency investment panel chaired by the OFBCI and made up of representatives from the police force, fire service and the Institute for Public Safety, Crime and Justice, 15 of the 20 organisations were subsequently awarded £82,350 of public funding between them to help tackle crime and safety issues in their communities.

A further five organisations have been offered places on the second phase of the Academy, which will help set-out effective strategies and give assistance in applications to apply for a second round of funding, with the OFBCI having set aside up to £37,650 of investment for those organisations.

Helen Boardman, Director of the Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, said: “We designed the Championing Change Business Academy because many community-based organisations told us they wanted to help Northamptonshire Police to keep their communities safe and free of crime, and were looking for a means of delivering this.

“The feedback provided by organisations who have participated in the Championing Change Business Academy has been overwhelmingly positive and this is due to the high quality of bespoke course developed and delivered by the University of Northampton.

“A number of people and organisations from across the county remain hard to reach and I’m delighted to be able to work with these groups to make a difference to their communities.

“We hope to be able to put on similar initiatives in the future to an even wider range of community and faith-based groups.”